Pet bill would allow puppy mills to thrive

In his May 8 letter, “Bill would protect pets and pet owners,” Robert Likins of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council grossly mischaracterized House Bill 3212.

We shouldn’t be fooled by pet industry lobbyists’ spin on this pro-puppy-mill bill, which is an attack on local governments.

The bill is a response to a recent Boston ordinance banning the sale of puppy-mill puppies in pet stores and pending legislation that would extend this prohibition to all Massachusetts pet stores. Rather than switching to a humane model that doesn’t rely on puppy-mill sales, the industry has responded with House Bill 3212, which would strip cities and counties of their right to regulate pet store sales, voiding ordinances such as Boston’s.

To make matters worse, the bill would take away local control and replace it with meaningless statewide standards that would do little to prevent puppy mills from selling sick and behaviorally challenged puppies at exorbitant prices to unsuspecting Massachusetts consumers.

This same tactic was attempted by the pet industry this year in Georgia, Tennessee and Illinois. It failed in each of these states. Let’s make sure it fails here as well. Let’s adopt puppies, dogs and other pets at our local shelters!

Laura Bianchi

Yarmouth Port

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